Crime Blog

A Laredo attorney will be sentenced July 5 in Dallas after pleading guilty last week to a charge of interstate travel in aid of racketeering.

Attorney Alonzo Ramos faces a maximum of five years in prison. He was released on bond, and the court has restricted his travel to Texas, documents show.

Ramos admits that he visited a drug trafficker, listed in court documents only as “L.T.,” in a Louisiana prison in 2008 “to make sure that L.T. was not cooperating with the authorities,” court documents show. The inmate alerted authorities, who began investigating.

Ramos told L.T. that he had $48,000 at his home in Laredo and could give it to one of L.T.’s relatives to buy his silence. The prison meeting was recorded, according to court documents. Days later, Ramos met L.T.’s relative in Laredo and handed over the money, which authorities seized.

Federal prosecutors in Dallas are handling the case because South Texas authorities recused themselves, according to local officials. Also, Ramos traveled through the Northern District of Texas’ jurisdiction to visit the inmate in Louisiana.

Authorities have not said, however, which cartel Ramos was working for, or who provided him the money. But South Texas media have noted that he is the son of a former Webb County judge, Andy Ramos.